The Top 10 Stories of November 13, 2012

Quote of the day.“I fully expected to come in here on Tuesday and open up my temple to serve the community and let it be a food distribution place. And we couldn’t. Instead, I’m going around telling volunteers helping us, ‘It’s unsanitary: put your mask on; wear your gloves.’” Rabbi Marjorie Slome, on her West End Temple in Queens, where flooding filled the basement and reached up to four feet on the first floor. (New York Times)

1. Liberals prepare for entitlement fight. With President Obama seeking a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” liberal groups that campaigned aggressively for his reelection are mobilizing to oppose concessions they fear he could make on Medicare and Social Security. (Washington Post)

2. Two million could see unemployment benefits disappear by year’s end. The people in danger of having their unemployment checks cut off are among those who have benefited least from the slowly improving job market: Americans who have been out of work longer than six months. (Washington Post)

3. General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend.The career of Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is now in jeopardy due to the investigation of the David Petraeus sex scandal. (Associated Press)

4. Obama considering John Kerry for job of defense secretary.President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus. (Washington Post)

5. Climate change report outlines perils for U.S. military.Climate change is accelerating, and it will place unparalleled strains on American military and intelligence agencies in coming years by causing ever more disruptive events around the globe, the nation’s top scientific research group said in a report issued Friday. (New York Times)

6. Obama reassessing sensitive foreign issues.The Obama administration has begun to reassess its foreign policy on a range of challenges, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and missile defense, that were viewed as too politically sensitive for any substantial shifts during the presidential campaign. (Chicago Tribune/Los Angeles Times)

7. Decision on Afghanistan deployment nearing, Panetta says. White House and Pentagon officials hope to determine within weeks the number of American troops that will remain for the long term in Afghanistan after the bulk of United States forces come home in 2014, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Monday. (New York Times)

8. Syrian opposition says West has promised military aid.The Syrian opposition says it has been promised western military support in return for forming a united front, in advance of a donors' conference in London on Friday intended to consolidate the new rebel coalition. (Guardian)

9. A vague role for religion in Egyptian draft constitution. After months of fierce debate over the place of Islam in government, the assembly drafting a new constitution for Egypt has settled on a compromise that opens the door to more religion in governance but mainly guarantees that the issue will continue to roil politics, the Parliament, and the courts for many years to come. (New York Times)

10. Spanish banks to restrict evictions after suicides.Spain's banking association announced on Monday it would freeze eviction orders for the next two years in cases of "extreme hardship," following widespread alarm and protests after a woman killed herself on Friday moments before she was due to be evicted, the second such death in less than a month. (Guardian)

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